Road wins against Big Ten foes have not come easy during Northwestern coach Bill Carmody’s tenure in Evanston.
In his five seasons, the Wildcats have compiled a 6-34 record away from Welsh-Ryan Arena during conference play.
On Saturday, NU (8-4, 1-0 Big Ten) looks to reverse its road fortunes, when it heads to Minnesota (9-2, 0-0) to take on the Golden Gophers at Williams Arena.
“Honestly, we circled this game against Minnesota probably about a month ago,” junior swingman Tim Doyle said. “We understand that if we get this win, then we have Penn State at home with the chance to open up the Big Ten season at 3-0.”
Williams Arena was the spot of the Cats’ lone Big Ten road win last season, a 55-53 come-from-behind win.
The Cats have also built some momentum in the last two weeks. They enter Saturday’s game on a four-game win streak, dating back to a 44-42 road win against Seton Hall on Dec. 18.
“The confidence level is great right now,” Doyle said. “We sat down before the Seton Hall game and mapped out our schedule right then and there. We knew we could go on a nice run with the teams we were playing.”
Three NU starters, junior forward Bernard Cote and freshmen guards Craig Moore and Sterling Williams, logged their first Big Ten minutes in their careers Wednesday against Purdue, and Saturday will be their first conference road test.
“Playing on the road in the Big Ten, it’s always a hostile environment,” Cote said. “We’re still looking forward to it. We still need to feed off the crowd’s energy, even if it’s negative energy.”
Carmody said he has been satisfied with Cote’s progress in his first season of eligibility since transferring from Kentucky, but he said he thinks the junior forward can do more.
“Bernard hasn’t really gotten into a groove yet, but I’m hoping he can do that,” Carmody said. “He can play a lot better than he’s been playing, and he knows that.”
Senior guard Mohamed Hachad will likely miss his second straight game, as he continues to recover from an appendectomy. Carmody said even if Hachad is able to play, he will see a limited number of minutes.
In Hachad’s absence, NU has been looking for a second scoring option to go along with senior forward Vedran Vukusic’s 22.3 points per game.
Cote was the second leading scorer on Jan. 1 against Northern Colorado with a career-high of 14 points, and Doyle set a new career high with 20 points Wednesday.
“With a guy like Vedran on your team, you don’t need a whole lot of scorers to compliment him,” Cote said. “But it’s always helpful when one of us like Tim steps up and puts in 20.”
If the Cats beat Minnesota on Saturday, they would not only alleviate the history of road woes, but they also will do something no NU team has done since the 1982-83 season: Start the conference season 2-0.
“A win Saturday will give us a lot of confidence,” Doyle said. “The conference is so tough this year top to bottom. Every win is super important, but we’ve had this one on our minds for a long time. It’s a huge game for us.”
Reach Scott Duncan at [email protected].
